Norway Gunman Says He Trained By Playing Videogames

video game, video game violence, Anders Breivik, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft

OSLO, Norway -- A 33-year-old political fanatic, who killed eight people with a bomb and 69 more with a gun on a single day last summer, said he played videogames to train for his shooting attacks.

Anders Breivik appeared in court here on April 18 saying he used the popular consumer videogame Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to practice acquiring targets and aiming.

Breivik also said he played the online videogame World of Warcraft up to 16 hours a day from 2006 to 2007. But he insisted that his gaming experience with WOW was unrelated to his acts of terror, except in the sense that gaming addiction provided "cover" for his preparations to stage the attacks.

Breivik's attacks occurred on the Norwegian island of Utøya on July 22, 2011. Breivik said he is an anti-Islamist who opposes multiculturalism and acted to prevent Norway from breaking into a religious civil war.